Berks & Beyond Blog

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  effective interview methods significantly increase your odds of hiring a top performer.

But just how, exactly, do you do this?

A few months back, I posted Five Tips to Help Improve Your Hiring Process to get you started.  As promised in that post, here are a few more strategies to help you eliminate interviewing biases, inconsistencies and inefficiencies – and ultimately hire better:

1. Minimize interviewer inconsistency.  If you can’t personally conduct every interview, you should train interviewers to enhance consistency.  Interviewing styles and effectiveness vary greatly, depending on personality, confidence and amount of formal training.  Some interviewers excel at asking questions; some are great ambassadors for your company; some are very detail-oriented and systematically process responses.  But unfortunately, few are strong in all these areas.  To improve consistency, require interviewers to cite specific candidate statements to back-up their evaluations and/or conclusions.  Train them to support their ratings with examples – rather than recording opinions, impressions or hunches.
2. Ask the recruit why he wants the job.  Our current job market is flooded with the type of applicant who indiscriminately shoots off résumés in response to any posting that matches his keyword search – all in desperate hope of landing any type of interview.  If a recruit can’t tell you why he wants to work for your organization, you probably don’t want him on your team.
3. Make a good first impression on the candidate.  While you are evaluating a candidate, the candidate will be sizing up you and your company.  Increase the likelihood that a top performer will accept your job offer by making a positive first impression:  respect the candidate’s time by being on-time and prepared for the interview; supplement the interview with written or on-line information about the company and/or position; allow time for follow-up questions (a candidate needs to learn about your organization, culture and the available position at the same time you’re learning about him).
4. Plan multiple interviews.  Always conduct at least two interviews (three for higher level positions).  Why?  Recruits may be able to fool you in one interview, but the chances of them misrepresenting themselves successfully across multiple interviews are greatly diminished.  In addition, a more rigorous process will help weed out those candidates who are apathetic and/or unreliable.
5. Hold a post-interview review meeting.  Establish a formal process for finalizing the interview process and making a hiring decision.  Provide a form interviewers can use to summarize each candidate’s interpersonal skills, cultural fit, competency evaluation and technical knowledge.  Give each interviewer equal time to share feedback and make recommendations.  The primary decision maker/hiring manager should give the last report, after which you can begin open discussions about a hiring decision.

Incorporate these suggestions with the tips in my last post, and you’ll be well on your way to better hires in 2012.

Ensure Great Hires with Berks & Beyond

If you lack the time, resources or desire to hire on your own, Berks & Beyond is here to listen and help.  Our direct placement services quickly and cost-effectively deliver candidates with skills, experience and behavioral traits to succeed in your organization.  We use professionally trained interviewers, skills-specific testing, thorough background checks and satisfaction guarantees to ensure the success of your next hire.

If you’ve watched the news lately, or followed the markets, you’ve probably found the economic data as puzzling and disconcerting as I have.  Up one day, way down the next.  One economic analyst talks about a slow recovery, the other warns us of the next recession.  The roller coaster we’re on isn’t showing any signs of smoothing out, thus leaving companies – and employees – wondering what’s next.

The honest answer is that nobody knows.  And for the people who work in your organization, that may be the most stressful part.  Uncertainty breeds fear.  And fear breeds discontent.  When people are unsure of their futures, they fill their minds (and waste their time) with irrational fears and “what ifs.”

During hard times, companies rely on their employees to help pull them through.  But unfortunately, that’s precisely when top performers are most likely to quit.  Watching others get laid off, chronic overwork and nagging uncertainty can all drive your best people out the door.

When your staff is worried, it’s up to you to control the outcome.  Now is the time to motivate, retain and even re-recruit your top employees, using the following ideas:

• Be honest. When times are tough, there’s a natural tendency to buckle down, work harder and avoid others.  This is a deadly mistake.  Without good information from you, your employees will draw their own (possible incorrect) conclusions.  In general, it’s far better to be forthcoming – even about bad news – than to withhold information.
• Involve top performers in developing solutions. Talk about the problems facing your organization and challenge your best employees to help create the solutions.  With a vested interest in the company’s success, and control over the ways problems are tackled, your staff will be more likely to stay through difficult times.
• Invest in one-to-one management. Layoffs, customer attrition and other sources of bad news tend to create a turbulent workplace.  Calm the waters by scheduling one-on-ones with each of your key team members.  Review the improvement plans being enacted, as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead.  Outline clear expectations for each employee’s performance and the outcome that will occur if that performance is achieved.  If layoffs are likely, clearly delineate the situation that will trigger the cuts and what must occur to avoid them.
• Offer market pay. While this may not be the ideal time to consider increasing personnel expenses, don’t short-change yourself by under-compensating your staff.  Evaluate your pay and benefits package to ensure it’s competitive.  While money alone typically won’t drive high performance, a compensation package that is perceived as being unfair will create resentment – and drive employees out the door.
• Actively re-recruit top performers. Your company surely invests in marketing to existing clients.  Why?  Because it costs five times more to get a new customer than to retain an existing one.  The same is true of employees.  Top performers are incredibly expensive to replace.  Rather than take chances, be proactive about keeping them satisfied.
  Ask your employees to help keep the team together, by identifying those they feel are at risk of leaving.  Tell your employees how much you value them – regularly.  Find out what frustrates your best employees and develop ways to alleviate the sources.  Help top performers define career paths within your organization.  Bottom line, do whatever you can to keep your best and brightest inspired to continue working for you.

During times of crisis and uncertainty, true leaders emerge.  Get out of your office and go invest in your biggest asset – your people.  Let them know that they are more than just survivors; they are the champions who will create your company’s future success.

Contact Berks & Beyond today to find out how our direct hire services for Central and Southern Pennsylvania employers can deliver the high performers you need to thrive in this tough economy.

It’s like a bad dream.

You’re in an interview, dressed to impress and feeling totally in control of the situation, when the unthinkable happens – the interviewer asks a question that completely stumps you: 

“If you could have dinner with anyone from history, whom would it be and why?”

“Why is a manhole cover round?”

“Which fictional character would you say best describes you?”

If just reading these questions makes beads of sweat pop out on your forehead, you’re not alone.  In an interview situation, most of us would be stopped in our tracks by off-the-wall questions like these.  But that’s the point:  interviewers ask odd questions intentionally, to see how well job candidates thinks on their feet and respond to stress.

Because unusual interview questions can be about virutally any topic, they’re nearly impossible to prepare for.  Still, here are a few quick tips to help you handle them more effectively:

• Keep your composure.  The question was meant to throw you off your game – so don’t let it rattle you.  Keep your face neutral and recognize that this is the wacky question you’ve been anticipating.
• Take your time.  Smile, take a deep breath and avoid the temptation to blurt out an answer.  Don’t panic – if you have to take a moment to gather your thoughts, it merely demonstrates that you think carefully through a situation before responding.
• Relax.  When it comes to unusual interview questions, your answer is not as important as how you handle the situation.  In fact, most don’t have right or wrong answers.  So take the pressure off yourself.  You don’t have to be brilliant, you just need to answer honestly.

If you’d like some practice answering off-the-wall questions, consider the following popular ones:

• If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be?
• If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?
• If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
• If you were a _________ (insert:  car, animal, salad dressing – you get the picture), what kind would you be and why?
• If you won $50 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
• How would you rate me as an interviewer?

Be Prepared for Your Next Interview

Register with Berks & Beyond today.  Our team of staffing professionals will listen to your needs, match you with a perfect direct placement opportunity, and then prepare you to ace the interview.